Factors Shaping MSM-Focused HIV Prevention Policies and Activities in Ghana

加纳以 MSM 为重点的艾滋病毒预防政策和活动的影响因素

• 批准号: 8603663
• 负责人: Akua Ofori Gyamerah
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-10 至 2016-09-09
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8603663
• 关键词: AIDS prevention; AIDS/HIV problem; Accounting; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Address; Adoption; Affect; Africa South of the Sahara; African; Anal Sex; Anus; Applications Grants; Area; Attitude; Complex; Country; Development; Doctor of Public Health; Educational process of instructing; Epidemic; Ethnography; Focus Groups; Funding; Funding Agency; Gender; Ghana; Goals; Government; Group Interviews; Group Meetings; HIV; HIV Seropositivity; HIV risk; Heterosexuals; International; International AIDS; International Agencies; Interview; Knowledge; Legal; Local Government; Mentors; Mentorship; Methods; Monitor; Nature; Participant; Perception; Policies; Political Factor; Population; Positioning Attribute; Postdoctoral Fellow; Preparation; Prevalence; Prevention; Prevention Guidelines; Process; Provider; Public Health; Public Health Students; Publishing; Qualitative Methods; Qualitative Research; Reporting; Research; Research Activity; Research Methodology; Research Personnel; Research Project Grants; Risk; Services; Sex Behavior; Sexuality; Shapes; Social Environment; Staging; Strategic Planning; Structure; Time; Training; USAID; Western Africa; Work; Writing; design; ethnographic method; experience; men; men who have sex with men; metropolitan; peer; prevention service; professor; programs; public health relevance; public health research; research study; sex; skills; social; social implication; stem; theories; transmission process; working group

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal aims to acquire the qualitative research methods training necessary to develop as an independent academic researcher in the field of HIV/AIDS by preparing and conducting a qualitative research study on HIV prevention policies in Ghana targeting men who have sex with men (MSM). Background: men who have sex with men (MSM) have been overlooked in African government's AIDS National Strategic Plans despite evidence that same-sex sexual activities and MSM HIV transmission do occur throughout the continent. Over the past five years however, HIV prevention efforts addressing MSM have increased and millions of dollars of funding have flowed from international funding source for these efforts. Particularly in Ghana, where the MSM HIV prevalence rate is over ten times the national average, the government AIDS agency is taking steps to address the epidemic among this key population. Given that anal sex between men in Ghana is illegal and culturally unaccepted, the purpose of the proposed study is to understand how the Ghanaian government came to prioritizing MSM in HIV prevention policies and what cultural, social, and political factors affect the development, implementation, and reception of these policies. Aims: The specific aims are 1) to explore why and how HIV/AIDS prevention policies focusing on MSM in Ghana are developed and how social, cultural and political factors, including the legal context, which criminalizes same-sex sexuality, and international AIDS prevention guidelines for MSM, affect these policies; 2) To explore how MSM HIV prevention policies are being implemented, what discrepancies might exist between the policies and their implementation, and what factors can account for the gap; and 3) To examine how MSM in Ghana perceive and experience these HIV prevention policies and programs and their effects. Methods: Consistent with my training objectives, the study will apply an ethnographic and sociological approach to understanding the cultural, political, and social contexts and implications of these policies. Specifically, I will conduct 35 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with policymakers, HIV prevention service providers, and MSM who use these services; participant observations of policymakers' work group meetings and functions, HIV prevention fieldwork, and social settings; and 2 focus group interviews with 20 peer educators. While it is critical that many African nations are taking steps to address the epidemic within the MSM population, it is also vital to understand how this process is occurring and the attitudes, perceptions, and structural factors informing it given the complex and contradictory legal and cultural contexts that criminalize and stigmatize anal sex between men. No known study of this nature has been conducted in Ghana or the region.

说明(由申请人提供)：本提案旨在通过准备和开展加纳针对男男性行为者(MSM)的艾滋病毒预防政策的定性研究，获得必要的定性研究方法培训，以发展为艾滋病毒/艾滋病领域的独立学术研究人员。背景：男男性行为者(MSM)在非洲政府的艾滋病国家战略计划中一直被忽视，尽管有证据表明，同性性行为和MSM艾滋病毒传播确实在整个非洲大陆发生。然而，在过去五年中，针对男男性接触者的艾滋病毒预防工作有所增加，数百万美元的资金来自于这些努力的国际资金来源。特别是在加纳，那里的男男性接触者艾滋病毒流行率是全国平均水平的十倍以上，政府艾滋病机构正在采取措施解决这一关键人群中的流行病。鉴于加纳男性之间的肛交是非法的，在文化上是不被接受的，拟议的研究的目的是了解加纳政府是如何在艾滋病毒预防政策中优先考虑男男性行为的，以及哪些文化、社会和政治因素影响这些政策的制定、实施和接受。目标：具体目标是：1)探讨为什么以及如何制定以加纳男男性接触者为重点的艾滋病毒/艾滋病预防政策，以及社会、文化和政治因素，包括法律背景， 2)探讨男男性接触者艾滋病毒预防政策是如何实施的，这些政策与执行之间可能存在哪些差异，以及造成这种差异的因素是什么；以及3)检查加纳的男男性接触者如何看待和体验这些艾滋病毒预防政策和方案及其效果。方法：与我的培训目标一致，这项研究将应用人种学和社会学的方法来理解这些政策的文化、政治和社会背景及其影响。具体地说，我将对使用这些服务的政策制定者、艾滋病毒预防服务提供者和男男性接触者进行35次深入的、半结构化的访谈；对政策制定者的工作组会议和职能、艾滋病毒预防实地工作和社会环境的参与者观察；对20名同行教育工作者的2次焦点小组访谈。虽然许多非洲国家正在采取措施应对男男性接触者中的这一流行病，但也必须了解这一过程是如何发生的，以及影响这一过程的态度、看法和结构性因素，因为复杂而矛盾的法律和文化背景将男性之间的肛交定为犯罪并将其污名化。加纳或该地区尚未进行过这种性质的研究。